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The 

PEARCE NEW METHOD 
of BEE KEEPING 



By JOSEPH A. PEARCE 

Expert in Horticulture and Bee Keeping. 

R. R. No. 1 
GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN 



REVISED SECOND EDITION 




Copyright 1915 
By JOSEPH A. PEARCE 



Price 50 Cents. 




JOSEPH A. PEARCE 
Author of the Pearce System of Bee-Keeping. 

' 1039 



PEARCE METHOD OF BEE-KEEPING 



PREFACE 



Wfc 




N writing this book I do it for the purpose of putting 

the best things that I have learned in'my thirty-five 

years of bee keeping, in condensed form so they may 

be perpetuated for the benefit of any who may wish 

to take up bee keeping for pleasure or profit. 

Thanks to modern methods it can be electrotyped and thus be 

preserved andjjcan easily and cheaply be placed in the hands of 

many who should have it. 

By this method, beekeeping can be easily pursued almost 
everywhere in the cities andj country. There should be very 
many more people interested in gathering this enormous honey 
supply which is now allowed to go to waste. 

The money making possibilities in honey production is esti- 
mated to be worth millions of dollars and it is a refined, health- 
giving business which has wonderful possibilities for the young 
and a pleasing and interesting occupation for those who have 
retired from active business. 

J. A. PEARCE 




This hive is in the home of Alderman Welsh. It gave him $22.00 worth 
of comb honej the first year it was installed, and is still doing as well. 



PEARCE METHOD OF BEE-KEEPING 



CHAPTER I 
How I Discovered My Present Method of Bee Keeping. 



Twenty years ago I began to put bees in buildings. One 
of the first I put up in a stable loft. I had known for some 
time that bees had been kept in small rooms or large places 
prepared for them and left to themselves to build their 
combs as they pleased. I was told that they would event- 
ually fill these upper rooms or boxes, and stay there from 
year to year and would not swarm out, and that the people 
of the house could go up in the winter when the bees were 
dormant and open these places and cut off honey for them- 
selves as wanted. This looked attractive to me, but it was 
said that the moths would get in and destroy the bees, and 
I did not like this chunk honey, as it would not be neat and 
nice, so with this much information I started in to see if 
I could devise something with our movable frame hives, 
large enough so the bees would not swarm and the moths 
could not destroy them, and that we might get the honey 
in nice one-pound boxes, as we were getting it out in our 
bee yard. 

The first outfit that I put up was three hives set side 
by side. I cut holes into these outside hives from the middle 
one, for the bees to go through. Then I let the bees fly 
out doors from the middle hive, and I put my surplus cases 
on the middle hive. The bees soon began to fill these cases, 
but to my surprise and regret, I could not get the bees to go 
into these side hives. This, I saw was of no use and I took 
away these side hives and shut up the openings and put 
one of them on top of the middle hive. Very soon the queen 
began to fill this body with brood instead of swarming out, 
and I soon had seventy-five pounds of nice comb honey in 
the cases and was delighted. I then saw that I had been 
making a mistake in making my hive broad instead of high 
id enlarge it. Our bee-keepers think, many of them, that 
ihe\ should have a larger hive than the eight frame, and 
add ten, twelve or even fourteen frames in width instead 
of putting two of the eight-frame hives, one above the other, 
as I did twenty years ago, making a tall hive more like a 
hollow tree — the natural home of the bee. 

This hive is about a quarter larger than the Quimby 
hive and is about the right capacity for a queen to 
deposit all the eggs she wishes for the colony, so there 
will be no swarming, if sufficient surplus cases are put on in 
time so the honey may be carried above, to leave adequate 
space for the queen. Then again it is about the right size 



6 PEARCE METHOD OF BEE-KEEPING 

and form to enable the bees to store an ample supply to 
carry them through any Winter and Spring without danger 
of starvation. Now, after twenty years' use, I do not see 
any need for changing to anything different. This, then, 
is the hive I used and recommend, as it is heavy enough to 
lift these bodies separately when they are filled, and seems 
right in every way. 

You will please notice, then, that all that goes to bring 
the results that we get from this method, is doubling the 
size of the hive and placing these hives in buildings above 
ground where they can be amply protected. This makes all 
the other things possible which we will tell you about later. 

Now, in conclusion, this introductory will get us better 
acquainted and has told you how big a hive I use to get 
best results. 

I, therefore, think that in my first article I cannot do 
better than to tell you all I can about buildings above ground 
for bees and how to arrange the bees in them for best results, 
both for the man who only wishes to keep a few colonies and 
also a building for large apiaries. For our bees should be 
housed as much as our horses, hens or cattle, and they will 
pay larger dividends for less labor. 




This is the hive used by nearly all Beekeepers, and is not tall enough to 
admit of honey sufficient to be si, .red above the bees for a winters supply; 
neither is it large enough to hold all the eggs a queen will deposit. 



PEARCE METHOD OF BEE-KEEPING 



CHAPTER II 

A Preliminary Explanation for the Benefit of Beginners 
in Bee Keeping, and Others. 



In handling bees by bee keepers in general, there has 
been about four ways resorted to for the purpose of getting 
the bees through the season in a successful manner. The 
first that I will mention is to put the bees in a single hive 
body, with 8 to 12 frames, of the Langstroth or regulation 
dimension. This hive is left on the summer stand or place 
where it stood all through the year without much of any 
protection. Others not being satisfied with this method, 
resort to some kind of packing about the hives, either put 
about the hives in the Fall and removing it in the Spring, or 
by having a permanent case attached to the hives to remain 
through the whole year, such as the original Root double 
hive and the modifications of it that have come down to the 
present time. Then some few, but this class has not been 
large, have tried burying their bees in a trench somewhat 
as they would for vegetables. 

Then another and much larger class, put their bees into 
cellars, below ground. All of these people use a single hive 
body for keeping their bees in. And without saying any- 
thing about the merits of any of these four methods for the 
present, I wish to bring to your notice the four places and 
ways that I use in my method of handling bees, which is 
known as the Pearce Method of bee keeping, in buildings 
above ground. The first place I will mention where they may 
be kept is in a barn or stable loft. The next is in house 
attics as kept in cities, next in poultry houses. Then in a 
house or shell, built especially for the bees. In all these 
ways, the bees are kept in two of the regulation hives, each 
hive being the same size and shape as the hive used by those 
who keep their bees below ground and out of doors. Thus 
you will observe that I use a hive with just double the 
capacity of my brother bee-keepers generally. These two 
hive bodies are used one above the other, making a tall hive 
that is divisable and may be made into two hives and used 
by others or put together as we use it. This little prelimi- 
nary explanation will serve to show every one the different 
places and ways in most common use by the bee-keeping 
fraternity. Therefore, without saying anything about the 
merits of any of these different ways, leaving that for later 
on, I will proceed at once to tell you about a model bee house 
or shelter for your bees, so you can build one or more like it, 
as this is important. 



PEARCE METHOD OF BEE-KEEPING 







*#$&*&■ 



Exterior <>i a Model Bee House for ten Colonies of bees at the 
home of the author of this book 



CHAPTER III 

A Model Bee House Above Ground for Ten Swarms of Bees 

and How to Build ft. 



The above house is 13 feet 8 inches long and QVo feet 
high and 6V2 feet wide, with no floor. 

The sides and ends are covered with German or shiplap 
siding. The roof is covered with dressed hemlock and roof- 
ing paper. The frame is made all of 2 x 4 scantlings. You 
can order this all L4 ieet long, 24 pieces. 

The siding and shelves for the hives will take 60 pieces 
14 feet long. The roof will take 150 feet of dressed hemlock 
and two rolls of roofing. Then you need 200 feet run- 
ning measure of 3 inch strips for corner boards. You will 
need 20 pounds of 8 pw. nails; 5 pounds of 20 pw. spikes; 
2 pounds of 6 pw. finishing nails. 

You want 5 windows 14 x 18 glass, the sash made just 
the thickness of your siding or sheeting ; the glass to be cut 
i/ 2 inch short at the bottom of the windows to let any bees 
that might, escape while working with them inside of the 
house. This will finish your house on the outside. Now cut 
a door in one end of the house and go inside and put on the 
finishing touches. Nail securely, your cleats on your stud- 



PEARCE METHOD OF BEE-KEEPING 



9 



ding, 20 inches from the bottom of the sill, and put a shelf 
20 inches wide all along on each side of your building for 
your hives to set on. In siding up your building when you 
put on the first 3 or 4 pieces, up to where you wish your bees 
to fly out, leave one piece loose to slip out for your opening 
for the bees. Then when you get up where the top of your 
window sashes are to come, leave loose another strip, so as 
to have a starter to cut your windows out. Then after you 
have gotten your shelves built for the hives to set on, you 
can cut up pieces of 2 x 4 and put a piece laid flat-wise just 
at the top of the opening for your bees. This will then give 
you a smooth surface on the inside, even with your upright 
studding, to put your hives up against, and this will throw 
your hives in 5 inches from the outside wall. This is most 
important and those strips of scantling are fine to nail 
strips of board to on the inside to close the openings between 
the hives. As to our windows, we place 2 little notched 
buttons at the bottom and one in the middle of the window 
at the top to turn and take out all the windows in the summer 
for air if we want. Now put hinges and locks on your door 
and your house is done, all but making a little sliding table 
as you see from the picture of my house. This is made by 
leaving your supports for the shelf, 2 inches longer than the 
width of the shelf and cut a notch down 2 inches for your 
track, which is an inch and your sliding table is another inch. 
This makes it, so your table is just the level of your shelves. 
Now your house is done. 




Interior of house shown on opposite page 



10 PEARCE METHOD OF BEE-KEEPING 

Cut your 12 side studding, 6 feet, 2 inches long and 
place them 32 inches from center to center. This gives you 
5 equal spaces, and a window is put in the center of each, as 
high as you can look out of nicely, and the piece of siding 
that you leave for the bees to fly out, you can hinge at 
the bottom with strap hinges, and there it will answer the 
double purpose of closing up this opening along the side of 
the building in stormy weather and it can be turned down 
level in good weather or may be dropped clear down out 
of the way, by the side of the house. This completes all the 
accessories and will give you a most complete home for your 
bees. Filled with our double sized hives, I know of nothing 
better. This house should always be built north and south, 
and on level land; if the land is not level you can easily 
grade it down or build shorter houses. But if you should be 
building one long house for say a 100 colonies or more, I 
would advise you to rut safety first and anchor it down well 
in some way. Ours has strap iron spiked onto the side of 
the building and running down and bent off out in a trench 
2 to 3 feet deep and cement and stones piled on this iron 
and the trench filled with rocks. This should hold it down. 
While with all these hives filled, so they weigh around a 
hundred pounds each, there may be no danger, but some- 
times we get strong winds from the west; and I would 
rather go to a little trouble and always feel safe. If this 
house is on your own land it may stand for a long time and 
give you a good deal of pleasure and profit. 

From the description here given and these specifica- 
tions, anyone can build a house like this or as many of them 
as they like, or any length house on this same plan, and they 
can be built for about what those double walled hives per 
hive can be built and very much cheaper than the former 
Root or Hilton hives would cost, if built now. There should 
be a lot of these shelters, built for bees ; for the practice of 
leaving bees out, exposed to the storms in any kind of a 
hive or putting them down cellar for so long a period should 
be discontinued, for we still remember how Mr. Geo. Hilton 
lost his fine apiary in Northern Michigan, although protected 
in the Hilton Hive. I will now give all the material for this 
house in a summarized form, so anyone can order it. This 
house will hold 10 colonies without crowding and leave room 
to double the apiary and leave the 20 swarms in this house 
till spring or longer if you were not going to increase again. 



PEARCE METHOD OF BEE-KEEPING 11 

Complete Bill for a Finished House 

(By the Pearce Method.) 

200 feet of 3 inch strips, Pine or Cypress. 
24 pieces of 2 x 4, 14 feet long. 
60 pieces of 6 inch German siding, 14 feet long. 
150 feet of Dressed Hemlock No. 1. 

5 windows 14 x 18, one light cut V2" short. 
2 rolls of Roofing. 
20 pounds of 8 nails. 
5 pounds of 20 spikes. 
2 pounds of 6 casing nails. 
8 pairs of 5 inch butts. 

1 Rim Lock. 

2 sacks of cement. 



CHAPTER IV 

How to Build a Shelter for Out Apiaries. 



Having told you in a former chapter just how to build 
a shelter for ten colonies for the small bee-keeper, and given 
you the dimensions for that, I will refer you to that chapter 
for specifications which I do not give here. 

The shelter that I shall recommend here is like the 
other, six and one-half feet wide by six and one-half feet 
high, and as to length, build for all the bees you have. About 
the only changes I would make from the other house, would 
be in the windows and the table in the aisle. It would not 
be necessary to put windows in these buildings if you did 
not want to, but could substitute shutters instead, as the 
boys are so liable to pelt the glass from an isolated building. 
For this reason and for the economy of it, I would omit them. 
*To make the shutters: If you build with German sid- 
ing you could side up some four feet, and then you could 
tack on loosely, four pieces of siding that you intend for 
shutters. Then on the inside, in every space between the 
studding, you could put a cleat or more on these strips of 



12 PEARCE METHOD OF BEE-KEEPING 

siding crosswise. Nail with finishing nails and clinch good. 
And when all is secure, you can then saw down these four- 
piece shutters between every other studding, taking care 
to saw perfectly square across, so they will open good. After 
this is done all along the length of your house, you can pro- 
ceed to finish to the top of your building. Now with five- 
inch strap hinges, you can hinge these shutters at the 
top, putting on two or three pairs on each shutter. At the 
bottom of these shutters, you can fasten with a button 
inside, the shutters to swing outward. If you would like 
to open from the inside you could attach a rope to each 
shutter and have it pass over a pulley or over a hook high 
enough so one could draw the shutter clear up against the 
wall if you wished to. Now, I believe, for the benefit of 
having lots of air and light, I would put these shutters on 
both sides, to take advantage of light and wind, in order to 
get light for working with the bees. I wish to emphasize 
this, as bees are so much more apt to sting if it is at all dark, 
therefore, always and under all conditions in working with 
bees, see that you always have plenty of light. Father Lang- 
stroth also warned against working with bees in the dark, 
as they would sting badly. 

Now about the little table in the aisle: If you should 
want to pull back a swarm to shake them in front for any 
reason, which does not often occur, this table would be a 
convenience, or for carrying tools on. I would make this 
table as follows : 

Make it the width of the aisle and about as big the other 
way, which will be about 30 inches each way. Make sup- 
ports by nailing two cleats on the under side, supports to 
be cut out of six-inch stuff, twenty-six inches long, and they 
will project two inches beyond your table; then you can 
saw down close to table into those pieces nearly two inches 
and split out ; now lay an inch and a half or two-inch strip on 
this support, and on these slide your table. You will notice 
in the picture of the house shown, that we have rollers under 
the table, but these are not necessary, and we wish to 
economize, so they can be dispensed with — now this com- 
pletes it. 

You might think that bees would come in through these 
open shutters and bother you, but they will not. Bees are 
always looking how they can get out, never in. 



PEARCE METHOD OF BEE-KEEPING 13 



CHAPTER V 
Bee Keeping for the Far North. 



We have all across our northern border, and stretching- 
far away into the British possessions, a vast domain. This 
territory is well protected with snow and so all plants, wild 
and cultivated, thrive and blossom well, but the winter is 
long and the cold quite continuous. But if bees could be 
brought through the long winter safely, they are liable to 
store honey abundantly during the short summers, as the 
days are long and the bloom quite profuse; but in the low, 
flat hives that have been used, there is not sufficient room 
to hold plenty of stores to last through these long winters 
and through the spring until the spring blossoms come. And 
it is here that our big double hives will fill a very important 
place, and by having this large store of honey it will carry 
the bees through any winter that comes, safely, and thus 
will make it possible for the people living much farther 
north to keep bees and get a honey supply, because the 
abundant snow protects the clovers and other honey plants, 
so that they yield plenty of honey if the bees can be kept 
safely. 

Therefore since the bees can be kept and handled in 
these large, hives as described by this method, and kept in 
fairly warm shelters, built with lumber and roofing paper and 
so arranged, they can always avail themselves of a flight 
whenever the weather is suitable, as late in the fall and as 
early in the spring, by having their entrances kept well open 
at all times, winter and summer, for good ventilation. A 
great deal of damage comes to bees from their entrances 
becoming clogged with dead bees and cappings on the inside, 
?nd snow and ice or other causes on the outside, which causes 
the bees to become damp. More bees are lost in this manner 
than in any other way. If bees can be kept dry, there is very 
little danger from cold of any reasonable degree. We almost 
forgot that our forefathers kept their bees successfully for 
years in single-walled box hives, and we have seen so many 
examples where bees have withstood low temperatures, that 
I feel sure many bee keepers are unduly alarmed about their 
bees suffering from the cold. An extensive bee keeper here 
told me he bought five colonies of bees that passed through 
that worst winter of the seventies in long box hives set up- 
on the edges of two wide boards and no bottoms on the hives, 
and they came through in fine shape and did better than any 
he had the next season. If cold could have killed bees, 
surely these should have been dead. And I saw a light after- 
swarm go through a winter in a double ten frame hive, one 



14 PEARCE METHOD OF BEE-KEEPING 

above the other and nothing but foundation in the upper 
hive, and only a small supply of stores in the lower hive, but 
they wintered well, being very dry, hence pay more atten- 
tion to keeping your bees dry and not being afraid they will 
freeze in a single thickness hive. I therefore feel sure if the 
people of the far north will place their bees in those large 
tall hives that will hold sufficient stores to carry them safely 
through any winter, and will put them in suitable shel- 
ters properly built, it will be possible for the people of 
the north to keep bees long stretches of miles farther north 
than they could have been kept in ordinary hives as form- 
erly. I am confident in this way bees may be success- 
fully kept away into the land of the Assiniboins, and far 
above Winnipeg, even to Alaska in our own territory. This 
would be a good thing for our neighbors of the north to 
practice on and see how far north the successful line of 
bee keeping can be pushed. And our people who are so 
favorably situated with plenty of bees in California, fhould 
push bee keeping north to Alaska. But for these great 
extremes, I would have large deep hives and would place first 
in house attics and allow to fly at all times when they can. 



CHAPTER VI 
Wintering Bees. 



The wintering of our bees successfully has been the 
great problem confronting bee keepers. The winter losses 
have been so great some winters as to almost threaten to 
wipe out the industry. 

Cellar wintering has been resorted to very extensively 
of late years, but it is found that while the bees will live in 
the cellar through the winter, on account of their long 
confinement without a flight or an opportunity to unload 
their bowels, they come out of the cellar in a weakened con- 
dition, so much so, that many are looking for a better way. 
And our trials of buildings above ground would lead us to 
feel confident that this way of wintering will entirely solve 
the wintering problem. Because the disasters to bees win- 
tered in the old ways in the past twenty years, have been 
enormous; while the percentage of losses of bees in build- 
ings above ground have amounted to nothing, although they 
have had little or no care, except perhaps the care a novice 
might bestow upon them, or had to get along with the care 
they could give themselves as they would have to do in a tree 
in the woods. 



PEARCE METHOD OF BEE-KEEPING 15 

I will now briefly explain some of the reasons why the 
bees in buildings have so much better chance to survive 
the winter. These bees are in two hives, one above the 
other, while those the old way are only in one body, conse- 
quently have less than half the stores. These big double 
hives inside are so amply protected, being five inches 
from the outside wall, which relieves them of all danger from 
snow, sleet or ice clogging the entrance; and being twenty 
inches from the ground, gives an opportunity to keep the 
entrance from inside and out entirely clear at all times — a 
thing of vast importance in wintering bees successfully. 
After having a sufficiency of good stores directly above the 
bees, I would place keeping the entrances open and clear 
at all times next in importance. Therefore, if we can winter 
and summer so successfully in buildings in this way and get 
so very much more fine honey, our bee men and every one 
engaging in bees keeping should not be slow in keeping their 
bees in buildings or at least testing these buildings. The 
value of the bees lost during the recent hard winters, that 
hermetically sealed all exposed hives out doors, would have 
built buildings for all the bees in the country. 



CHAPTER VII 
Bees in House Attics and Barn Lofts. 



House attics and barn lofts are about the only places 
where bees can be successfully kept in the cities. As there, 
on account of the proximity of the neighbors it would be 
impossible to keep them on the ground. It may not be 
known to every one that bees when placed anywhere above 
the second floor do not give any annoyance to anyone on 
the ground, but this is the fact, and so it enables the people 
in the cities to keep bees and get a supply of this 
most pure and luscious sweet as well as their neighbors in 
the country. And as about all the city dwellers have spacious 
unused attics, these make very good places to install a few 
colonies of bees on this plan, which gives them a good deal 
of pleasure and profit, for there still remains a strong love 
in these city dwellers for something that resembles the farm 
from which many of them have come to take up the more 
artificial life of the cities. Brick walls and asphalt pave- 
ments do not quite satisfy them, and a few colonies of bees 
with their busy hum, seems to go a good ways towards fill- 
ing this longing in their nature for something that reminds 
them of the old farm. Therefore, I hope those that are 
better acquainted with the business will hear me while I 
make a minute explanation in this chapter for the use of 



16 



PEARCE METHOD OF BEE-KEEPING 



these people who have perhaps never kept bees before. Then 
I want to say that bees when properly placed seem to get 
equally as much honey in the city as those in the country. 
And now I want to caution everybody that attempts to keep 
bees inside of rooms or attics or lofts, to look well to their 
windows and make them so any bees that do accidentally 
get in, can readily get out. Bees do not purposely come into 
a room, but if they do get in through some hole, they go on 
the windows and die there. Then if you take out all win- 
dows, all bees will go out immediately and no more will come 
in, so the way to fix all windows that you do not darken, 
is to cut the glass about half an inch short at the bottom of 
the windows, or to darken all windows that are not so cut 
at the bottom. Be particular about this, for I feel sure that 
bees dying on windows was the prolific cause for the 
abandoning of old time house apiaries. And I feel sure that 




Two outfits put up a dozen years ago in a stable loft for a Banker. 
They are still doing well. 



PEARCE METHOD OF BEE-KEEPING 17 

of the things I have found out, nothing has been of more im- 
portance to me than making this half inch cut at the bottom 
of the windows. This matter is of such importance that it 
would pay to have a carpenter or glass man, for in a half 
day or less they could fix all windows in the attic perfectly 
that you cannot darken. With this explanation I will try 
to tell the dwellers of the cities and others about the kind 
of hive we use, and why we use it, and how to summer and 
winter the bees, and generally care for them. I feel sure 
anyone following these directions cannot very well make a 
mistake. This is somewhat a lengthy chapter, but it is 
important and it will pay you to read it more than once. 



The Hive We Use and Why We Use It. 



In a former chapter, I have told you quite plainly the 
kind of a shelter I use for our bees and I think it is plain to 
you by this time that we use a hive made of two of tne 
ordinary Langstroth hives, that we formerly used and that 
is still used by the great mass of bee keepers, generally. In 
this article I will tell you all about it, and why we use it. 
The first great reason is because the small hive we formerly 
used did not hold an adequate supply of honey to carry the 
bees through the winter safely and it was just as inadequate 
to give the queen sufficient room to deposit all the eggs she 
would in the spring up to the honey harvest. Two very great 
defects. The one caused tremendous winter losses and the 
other prevented the queen from giving us the enormous 
swarm of bees early for the honey harvest that she would 
have given us if she could have been supplied with a more 
spacious hive. In talking over winter losses with that vet- 
eran bee keeper, Geo. E.Hilton, he remarked that he felt sure 
that nine-tenth of the bees that had died have died of star- 
vation. The cause for this was the hives were too shallow. 
They do not in any way provide space enough above the bees 
to hold enough stores for a winter's supply. When we think 
the matter over in regard to these shallow hives, we wonder 
that as many have been gotten through the winter without 
starvation in these hives as there have. Bees as every one 
knows, store their honey above them and they should be 
given a hive of sufficient height to allow them to store a full 
supply to last them through any winter and spring and this 
is just what this tall hive made up of two bodies that I use 
and recommend, does. It is well known now that bees in the 
Fall drop down to the bottom of any hive they are in and 
get into a circular mass and eat upward and do not or cannot 
go in any other direction and if there is not sufficient stores 
directly placed above them, starvation is inevitable. So I 



18 PEARCE METHOD OF BEE-KEEPING 

feel sure our duty is plain from now on. It is this, to give 
our bees a taller hive than we have been giving them, and 
then see that it is well filled with winter stores, and then 
place these hives in shelters such as we recommend where 
you can give them the protection they should have from all 
storms that blow and where you can see that their entrances 
are open at all times so they will have proper ventilation and 
have a flight at any time in the winter when the weather is 
suitable. For it has been starvation and want of ventilation 
that has been two of the great causes of mortality in our 
bees. Many of our hives weighed in the Fall around a hun- 
dred pounds. A hive that weighs a hundred pounds in the 
Fall, is good for 100 to 200 next summer. 



A Long Chapter for the City Dwellers, Who Are Usually 
Amateurs, So Please Excuse Close Explanations. 



The house attic, loft in the barn or out-buildings are 
the best places to keep bees, becaues they are entirely out 
of the way there. They are dry and warm and do not dis- 
turb anything on the ground, and nothing disturbs them, 
since when placed anywhere near as high as the second floor, 
they seldom disturb anything below them, thus giving no 
annoyance either in city or country to anything about them 
when so placed. 

If the hives are installed in the attic of a house, the 
space from the floor up should be as much as four feet; if 
higher, all the better, as the tall hives with their honey cases 
extend upward some distance. If there are some windows 
in the attic, cut a piece out of the lower sash-bar a little 
longer than the width of the hive. Then put a two-inch 
piece around it on the inside on the top and on the ends, 
as the hive bottom fills up the bottom space so that when 
the hive is pushed up in place, it is two inches from the 
window. This will admit a window curtain to shade the 
bees from the hot sun, and will also facilitate the putting on 
and taking off of the honey cases and winter coverings. 
Build a shelf as high as the window or nail legs on to the 
back of the hive, which must be level, or the back end one- 
half inch higher. Put the hive up in place, and all is 
done. If, however, the bees are to be set by the wall, which 
is often done in attics or lofts, cut a three or four-inch slot 
level with the floor as long as the width of the hive ; put a 
piece of binding or scantling at the ends and on top of this 
opening, and then it is ready for the bees. 

If you have never handled bees, it is best to get a regu- 
lar bee-keeper to furnish the bees and put them in for you. 
In case, however, this is impossible, the following method 
will be found of value : 



PEARCE METHOD OF BEE-KEEPING 



19 




An outfit by the Pearce Method in the high school in Grand Rapids 
which gave the teacher far above a hundred pounds of comb honey while 
away on her vacation. Repeats this each year. 

If the bees have to be moved some distance, go to the 
bee-yard in the day-time and carefully put a covering of 
burlap or wire screen over the whole of the top of the hive 
and tack it to a little frame the size of the top of the hive. 
This is done so that it can be tacked to the hive and taken 
off quickly. Wait until the bees are all in at night, then go 
and stop up the entrance, using some old cotton or calico 
rags pushed in with a screwdriver or knife. Leave one end 
out a little to get hold of, if desired. Take them in a good 
spring wagon or buggy and handle carefully. The spring is 
the best time to install bees — from the middle of April to 
the middle of May — because then it is possible to get a 
honey crop to pay for them the first season. But if neces- 
sary, it can be profitably done in July, or the first of August, 
just after the first honey flow is over. 



£0 PEARCE METHOD OF BEE-KEEPING 

There are two ways to be considered. A good swarm 
of bees can be obtained in the spring and another hive-body 
placed on them with some frames of foundation on this, the 
honey-cases being put on top of all; or with a little extra 
expense, two full hives can be purchased, and one placed 
over the other, having the top one only in a rim. 

To place the bees in position and liberate them after you 
have them home, move them up to the opening and when all 
is ready to push them up to it, pull out the rags quickly 
and push them up in place before many bees get out. If 
preferred, push them up in place, and if they do not quite 
fit, take some bits of rags and make all tight so no bees can 
possibly get into the building. Now go outside, take a ladder 
and climb up and pull the rags out from the outside, first 
putting a veil on to shield the face. If, however, the situ- 
ation is too high to reach conveniently from the outside, 
then pull out the rags from the inside and push the bees into 
position before many get out. When all is quiet, proceed to 
take off the top screen or burlap. Screw this frame on with 
four screws so that it can easily be removed. If you have 
a little smoke — every bee-keeper should have a smoker — it 
is a wise plan to give the bees a little smoke to make the 
most of them go below before removing the screen. After 
removing the screen or cloth, put on the section cases, which 
must be ready and filled with foundation starters. These 
will probably have to be procured from your local supply 
dealer, for if you are keeping only a few bees, it will hardly 
pay to rig up to prepare them for yourself ; and, as all they 
cost can be obtained when they are sold with the honey, 
nothing is lost. 

When the honey is removed in the fall and the hive is 
open, prepare to cover it with some porous material such as 
folded quilts, carpets, or one of the honey cases with the 
honey boxes removed. Lay a piece of burlap in it, fill with 
chaff and set it on the hive ; but before doing this, it is well 
to put a piece of wire netting over the hive and put the case 
over this to keep the mice out. This porous material is 
put on because there is moisture which rises from the bees 
which this lets through, and they winter better for it. Some 
winter successfully with just the board covers sealed clown, 
but the porous quilts are to be preferred ; too many cannot 
be used in winter or summer. 

In the Spring. 

Put as many as four or even more honey cases filled 
with foundation on top of these two hives. Be sure to have 
enough, letting them go as they please till near the first of 
November, when the bees will cluster down in the large 
hive-body out of this sealed honey. 

Then, with a strong knife or screwdriver, quietly pry 
loose these honey-cases, as they will be stuck fast with bee 



PEARCE METHOD OF BEE-KEEPING 21 

glue. Across the corner is the best place to pry first to 
loosen them, and it should not take more than five minutes 
to take off the honey cases in the fall, nor more than that 
amount of time to put them on in the spring. Do not fail 
to put the honey-cases on the first of May and take them 
off the first of November, and, since it is quite probable that 
these two visits are the only ones which will of necessity 
be made during the year, it is essential that the work be 
carefully done at these times. 

Remember to take off the wire screen if you have had 
one on during the winter, and set on the honey-cases care- 
fully and straight, making all movements around the bees 
very quietly, thus avoiding all stings. Do not pound or 
thump on the hive, as the bees are apt to come out and 
resent it. Put on plenty of honey cases, as many as four 
at a time ; or if you are at all acquainted with bees, put on 
two at a time every two weeks until six have been used. On 
top of these honey cases, pile all the winter covering. A 
piece of oil-cloth can be put on top of the cases first, oil 
side down, and the winter covering on top of this. Now let 
them alone, unless it is possible to have a bee expert look 
them over. About the first of November, when the good 
wife gets the buckwheat cakes started, take the honey-cases 
off and cover up the hive for their long winter's nap. 

There must be no crevices where the wind from outside 
can blow up through the hives. Remember that if all is 
tight above, the draught from below will do no harm. 




22 PEARCE METHOD OF BEE-KEEPING 

CHAPTER VIII 

The Cause of Swarming and Swarm Control. 



It is very probable that the cause of swarming, and its 
control is not very well understood by many of our Dee- 
keepers, and I feel sure that these two things are of greater 
importance than almost anything else in our pursuit, for so 
many other things are affected by them. For it would seem 
as if on these "hang all the law and the prophets" of bee- 
keeping. It is generally supposed that swarming is the nat- 
ural and legitimate way of increase for the Bee family, and 
therefore it is not much use to try to prevent it or fmd out 
the cause. 

But it has been noticed that usually when there is a 
big sudden honey flow there is a spell of excessive swarming 
and therefore these two conditions seem to be in some way 
connected. So then bees do not swarm at all times alike 
as might be expected if they were just fulfilling the law 
of increase to perpetuate the race. It also has been observed 
that when bees swarm, about all available space in the hive 
is filled up. It does not necessarily follow that all the combs 
are wholly filled or sealed up, for as soon as ever so little 
honey is placed in the cells they are of no more use for the 
queen to deposit eggs in until this honey is moved. Then if 
a sudden large honey flow comes on and all available space 
in the hive is filled, there is nothing for the bees to do but 
start queen cells and swarm out as there is no place for the 
queen to deposit eggs. Bees will not cease gathering honey 
for any cause if any is to be had and if there is a goodly 
number of bees in a hive and a large honey flow comes on and 
the queen depositing one to two thousand eggs in a day with 
pollen being brought in to feed the bees, it is only a question 
of a very short time till there will not be an available cell left 
for the queen to deposit eggs in and then swarming is inevit- 
able as it is the only way to make more space for the queen to 
deposit eggs whether we want swarming or not. Therefore, 
it seems as if there being no more space available in the 
hive for the queen to deposit eggs in, is the prime cause of 
swarming. 

If this is so it would be an unwise thing for a bee-keeper 
to not provide a queen with adequate space to deposit all the 
eggs she is capable of, especially in early spring when a 
big stock of bees are so essential. It is no use raising bees 
after the harvest comes. It is said that no bee carried 
in more than a spoonful of honey in her life time. If so, it 
is onlv by securing a great number of bees early that we can 



PEARCE METHOD OF BEE-KEEPING 23 

be assured a large honey crop. Several different ways have 
been adopted to give the queens more room. 

Our veteran Bee Keeper, Alexander, used to extract 
from the brood chamber in the spring to give his queen room 
and feed back as needed. But this was a great deal of 
trouble and would not fill the bill as a very prolific queen 
might soon overflow a small hive with eggs alone. Then 
others run for extracted honey and extract from the surplus 
cases in order to give more room. But this is not much use 
if the brood chamber is too small and unless the queen is 
allowed to go above, swarming is liable to occur. None of 
us want swarming as early as fruit bloom, it is an intoler- 
able nuisance. A large bee-keeper a number of years ago, 
I do not now remember his name, said if he "could only con- 
trol this everlasting swarming he would surely have a great 
thing." Many devices at different times by different men 
have been gotten up to prevent swarming, but nearly all 
have failed as it did not provide for the making of increase 
artificially if increase is needed. Therefore it seems almost 
certain that the great cause of swarming is the queen becom- 
ing hampered by inadequate space to deposit eggs in spring. 
Then if this is the cause, what is the remedy ? Everything 
points to a larger brood chamber. More and more I feel sure 
bee-keepers are making up their minds to this. When we 
look at the little straw hives used in Germany and other 
countries we see clearly that our forefathers did not realize 
the capacity needed for their bees, why a good swarm such 
as we now have in our large hives would fill one of these 
little hives in two days on a good honey run and have to 
swarm out. To prevent this, we use and advise a very much 
larger brood chamber and find that two of these hives that 
we formerly used is none too large to hold an adequate 
winter supply of honey and is just as much needed to hold 
all the brood a good queen can supply up to the honey har- 
vest. And surely it would be the height of folly to not sup- 
ply the queen with all the needed room at such an important 
season. And then we find it is the whole thing to prevent 
natural swarming ; not one of all these 200 hives here have 
swarmed this year to my knowledge and I believe I would 
know of it if they had. It has not been as bad a year for 
swarming as last year, but a lot of fellows have had to chase 
around after swarms and climb trees. All of this might 
have been spared by just putting another hive body on the 
one the bees were in about the first of May and then putting 
on some honey cases early so the bees could carry the honey 
up out of this big brood nest to give the queen room and go 
about your business till you take off your honey. If you 
want increase, you can have it by setting these hives apart 
and putting two more hives on these, one on each and a 
queen in the queenless one. As both our hives used are 
alike and interchangeable, 8 frames dove-tailed hives, and 



24 PEARCE METHOD OF BEE-KEEPING 

both bodies boiling over with bees, no loss from ascending 
or other cause, no climbing trees as these large hives control 
swarming naturally and give us the stuff and save us untold 
labor and annoyance and enable us to get unlimited quanti- 
ties of comb honey of the highest quality, a most valuable 
thing, as the production of comb honey is most desirable in 
so many ways. It is clean, it is nearly double in price, and 
honey in the comb is by far better flavored than extracted 
honey, and farther, its production should greatly assist us 
in eliminating foul brood. 

Of all the things that I have found out about bee-keep- 
ing there is none of near so much value to the bee-keeping 
world as this method of swarm control, as it is accomplished 
by the use of two of the regular Langstroth hives used as 
one. No new fangled things are brought in or are necessary. 
And not only is this made possible for extracted, but we 
can produce, as you see, unlimited quantities of fine comb 
honey without having the bees swarm naturally and then 
later if we want increase we can have it easily, quickly 
and cheaply in three or four ways, by just setting these 
hive bodies apart at the end of the white honey harvest. 
First give a new queen to the queenless part and put on 
extra body on each hive and you have all fall to build them 
up for winter to be prepared for the next year. But if your 
own stock is good and you do not wish to go to the expense 
of sending to a queen breeder, for a queen, you can see that 
the queen has been laying good in the upper hive. Then 
you can drive her below and raise up your upper hive and 
put in a super below it and an excluder on the super and 
let your hive down onto that and in two or three days you 
will have a fine lot of queen cells started. Then if you wish 
to you can take out the super and let the hive down on the 
excluder and the lower hive and then in about four or five 
days more you will have a fine lot of queen cells capped over 
which you can remove and divide your swarms and give 
queen cells to each hive, not caring where the queen is. This 
is a very easy and economical way of making increase and 
this method would get a number of good queens from your 
best colonies, a very desirable thing, and they surely would be 
raised under what is known as the swarming impulse, in the 
middle of this mammoth swarm boiling over with bees. In 
fact, this is about identical with the way a prominent 
breeder is raising superior strong queens that look almost 
a third broader than the ordinary good queens on the 
market. There are other ways, such as starting nuclei 
ahead, etc., but these two ways of making increase are good 
enough and by this latter way of raising your own queens 
you have queens enough so you can give a queen cell to each 
hive, and in this way you do not have to even look out for 
the old queen unless you want to and it makes it most 
economical and almost automatic and if you determined you 



PEARCE METHOD OF BEE-KEEPING 25 

have increase enough or do not want to make any increase, 
all you have to do is to keep on your surplus receptacles till 
later, then remove and cover with good porous material for 
the coming winter and again in good season put on your sur- 
plus cases. So you see you have increase or no increase, as 
you yourself determine, a thing not dreamed of when I 
started bee keeping years ago. 



CHAPTER IX 
The Real Mission of the Bees. 



We have all of us been, I think, inclined to look upon the 
bees as gatherers of honey, mainly as this is what they were 
made for and there has been some good reason for this for 
the honey has been the thing which they produce that we all 
have had our eye on and it has appealed to our taste as well. 
But the polen they bring in is not so attractive to us. We 
have looked upon it as a by-product rather in the way as we 
used to get our honey. We formerly used to call it bee bread. 

Even Dr. Watts (that almost matchless poet) wrote for 
us those memorable lines. "How doth the little busy bee 
improve each shining hour and gathers honey all the day 
from every opening flower." But he does not say a word 
about the polen she gathers, although he seemed to have 
knowledge enough of the bee, even at that early day to know 
that it was the lady side of the house that did all the work. 
As he wrote : "How skillfully she builds her cell. How neat 
she spreads her wax. And labors hard to store it well with 
the sweet food she makes." But not a word about polen. 
And yet it seems that polen gathering and polen distribution 
is the real great work for which the bees were designed, 
because it has been made by the great designer, imperative 
in two ways : That the bees must have and use polen. In the 
first place, the bees cannot rear their young without this 
polen ; and in the second place the honey is placed below the 
polen and in going down after the honey, her head comes in 
contact with the polen which she hastens to deposit fresh 
on the next blossom. No other agency known can do this 
work so perfectly and economically as the so-called honey 
bee. As she does not allow this polen to get stale, for every 
so often she rubs off this stale polen and places it in her hip 
pockets and when she gets a load of honey she carries it 
home to feed the babies on, for honey alone seems to be too 
strong, or something, and so imperative is this need for 
something to mix with honey, that in the spring before the 



26 PEARCE METHOD OF BEE-KEEPING 

blossoms come the bees will carry in horse feed and in the 
absence of this they will take in soft wood saw dust to mix 
in the honey. And so we see the beauty of this all. And 
why bees are the greatest friends of the orchard man as 
they will give him very much more and larger and better 
fruits. Turning many of his second apples into firsts, and 
besides doing this work for nothing and boarding them- 
selves, a good swarm of bees with our modern appliances 
will store for its owner from 50 to 200 pounds of comb honey 
per year. In looking the matter over from my view point, 
I wonder that so many orchard men do not keep bees of their 
own and rake in those benefits from both ways instead of 
running the precarious risk of having the other fellow keep 
the bees for you and eat all the honey gathered from your 
blossoms. In the near future, as soon as man becomes more 
advanced, when we visit a large fruit establishment and 
after being shown by the owner his great spraying outfit, 
I should expect to have him take me to visit his fine apiary 
in modern up-to-date hives, well housed and cared for like 
the other stock on the place, for if they are thus cared for 
they will bring a larger dividend for very much less labor 
than the other stock or even fruits. 



CHAPTER X 

When and How to Change from the Single to the 
Double Hive. 



If you are keeping your bees as you probably are in a 
single hive and would like to change to our double method, 
you can do so most easily as we use no new fangled appli- 
ances and our hives are of the latest pattern in use. The 
best time to change would be just after you take off your 
white honey in July, in our latitude. Then you can fit up 
another hive body the same as the one you have and set 
these on your parent hives, and have them build up good, if 
the season is good and a good fall flow, they will build up 
enough but if it is not good it may be well to feed some as 
it is so important to have them have plenty of stores for 
winter. If you should think well to feed, you can put another 
hive body on top and in this put a 10-pound pail nearly full 
of syrup well dissolved with hot water and perforate the lid 
with fine holes, not too much and see that the lid is well put 
on and invert the pail on the frames right over the bees. 



PEARCE METHOD OF BEE-KEEPING 27 

This is the most natural way for bees to get their stores 
right above them, and invert the pail and the suction will 
hold the syrup in only as fast as the bees suck it out. When 
all is done cover up well with some porous material like old 
cloths or quilts or a tray filled with dry chaff is the best. 
If you should ever think this double system not the best and 
wish to change back all you have to do is to set your top 
hive off again, and you would be just as before. But none 
that have tried it feel like going back to the old way. There 
is another time when it will do to change to the double hive 
and that is about May the first, in this latitude. If you put 
another body onto the hive, as you already have, it will pre- 
vent swarming, which is such a nuisance and your bees will 
be held together through the honey season without swarm- 
ing and the results in honey are liable to be as large or larger 
than if they are worked the other way and allowed to swarm. 
At least that was our experience this year when I moved a 
load of bees home from an apiary where the conditions 
seemed much more favorable than where mine were placed, 
and I doubled mine right up while those in the more favor- 
able yard were left single and yet mine filled the top hives 
and gave considerable more surplus than those in the single 
hives and were fine for winter. And this is a fine plan, as 
where they are doubled in this way in the spring, they are 
sure to be alright for winter or to be set apart at the end of 
July to make increase at the end of the white honey flow, if 
you wish it. 



28 



PEARCE METHOD OF BEE-KEEPING 




Making my first swarm by setting the two bodies apart as shown. 



CHAPTER XI 

Making My First Swarm in Public By Division By the 
Pearce Method. 

The above cut shows us making my first public demon- 
stration of how easy I make my swarms by the Pearce 
Method, by dividing, i. e., by just setting the two hive bodies 
apart. 

I naturally feel proud of this scene, as a boy would 
getting on his first pair of trousers. For I felt sure I had 
found out a good thing for myself as well as my fellow bee 
keepers in being thus able to control swarming and make 
our swarms by division so easily and quickly and so very 
much better this way. I have expressed it in this way, that 
it is as much better than the old way of swarming as the 
Westinghouse is better than the old brake to stop a passen- 
ger train. And now after all these years of trial, I feel sure 
there is very much more in it than I at first supposed. For 
I did not then have the conception that I now have, of the 
vastness of our great honey resources, which is estimated 
to be even greater than all of our agricultural products and 
live stock, which is placed at about ten billions of dollars. 
Therefore you will readily see that when man becomes a little 
more intelligent and begins to go after this vast amount of 



PEARCE METHOD OF BEE-KEEPING 29 

good property which is all about him, it will mean something 
to him to be able to control this everlasting swarming and 
make his swarms in ten seconds instead of an hour, as 
formerly, and then, too, that they will be so much better 
and will be made when he wants to make them, or not at all 
if he so determines. It is little wonder that we should become 
enthusiastic. 

You will notice that the hive body just in front of the 
boy with the smoker in his hand, was on the other hive body 
that has the honey cases on now, and both of these hive 
bodies are just alike, and are regular Langstroth sized hives, 
and so are interchangeable, and make up one hive as we 
used it for a brood nest, and now each part is to have another 
like body placed on each and be filled up to go through the 
winter again. 

The gentleman in the center, holding his watch to take 
the time required to make a new swarm by this method, is 
Senator William Alden Smith. He found that the time 
required was ten seconds, quite a shortening from the old 
way of one hour. 

We formerly advocated separating these hives at the 
beginning of the honey flow like this outfit was, but we now 
think it is better to wait and not divide till at the time of 
taking off the white honey, for if you are careful, you have 
all fall to build them up, and they should be all right ana wc 
think we get really better honey and more of it by keeping 
all the bees together during the honey gathering. But it 
is may intention to try some colonies both ways this year 
again to see if I can be more sure which is the best way. 
We sometimes grow impatient and think more ought to 
adopt this easier and better method of bee keeping, but we 
have to be patient till others see it as we do. But time will 
bring it about. When young Westinghouse presented the 
air brake to the elder William Vanderbilt, he asked him if 
he meant to say he could stop a passenger train with wind, 
and Westinghouse replied, "Yes," and Vanderbilt said he 
had no time to waste on fools. 



30 



PEARCE METHOD OF BEE-KEEPING 




A little German straw hive in the High School, which is of value to 
show how small a hive was formerly used. One of our large swarms in 
our large hive would fill this little hive in two days on a good flow and 
be obliged to swarm out. In this cut we show the mothod of transferring 
from small Old Style (lerman hive to removable frame hive above, giving 
more room to bees and making them produce straight combs. 



CHAPTER XII 

Transferrin!* Bees from One Hive to Another. 



When I first kept bees, if we wished to get bees out of 
an irregular hive into one of modern make, the only way we 
knew of was to break open the irregular hive and cut out the 
best of the combs and fasten them into the frames of the 
new hives, but this was a mussy job and anything but nice, 
and these combs fitted the new hive but poorly and were 
more or less uneven. Then came the Alexander plan of 
transferring by placing the new hive on top of the one we 
wished to get the bees out of and in a short time the queen 
would go up and commence to lay in this hive and then we 
could slip a queen excluder between the old and the new hive 



PEARCE METHOD OF BEE-KEEPING 



31 




View of bottom of Old Style German Hive. Bees were transferred to 
regular moveable frame hive. While this hive is filled with honey, it is 
almost useless as there is no way to remove it without destroying contents. 

and the queen could not go below again and in three weeks, 
if we wished, we could remove the old hive, as the brood 
in it would be all hatched out, or you could leave it longer 
till fall. This was a great improvement over the old way 
and a great relief, as we could then break up the old hive 
and extract any remaining honey and melt up the wax, and 
in this way we got all good straight combs. 

But now comes a plan of transferring for foul brood, 
about the only disease of any account we have to contend 
with. The old way was, of course, to shake the bees from 
the diseased combs onto clean foundation or an empty hive 
for a time and then give the combs, but this way has many 
troubles. To start with, it is anything but a pleasant job. 
If you've ever tried it you know. You get a lot of stings, 
some honey is sure to drip and bees are liable to be on the 
job if you don't look out, and you will disease more bees 
than you will cure. If there is anything that makes a man 
feel like cursing, it is shaking foul brood. And now comes 



32 PEARCE METHOD OF BEE-KEEPING 

this new way given in the March Review, by Mr. Joy in 
Idaho, and is called the "water treatment" for foul brood. 
It is like this : He takes the diseased colony and sets it into 
a tank with a little water in, enough to come up to the top 
of the entrance. Then he puts a clean hive with foundation 
on top of this, with a screen on top for air, and a good weight 
on top of all, so the hives cannot rise. Then he begins to 
pour water in the tank and lets it rise to the top of the old 
bottom hive he is transferring from, or just to the bottom 
of the combs in the top hive. He says to take about twenty 
minutes to pour in the water, and the bees rise of course 
with the water and are all pushed up in the upper hive. Then 
you can put a clean bottom board on where you lifted the 
diseased hive from, and set this hive with the bees in on this 
board and the job is completed. Now, while I have never 
tried this way, still I believe it will work and should be a 
great relief, and believe it should go a long way towards 
helping to eradicate foul brood, for with this plan no bees 
can get in and none get out, and with no combs to handle 
or no bees to come in contact with, it surely ought to be a 
relief. One reason why I believe it should be a success is, 
because I had my bees wrecked by a hail storm, and the 
whole apiary was turned into a pond of water, and the hives 
floating. It was the last of May and the hives were heavy ; 
there was only about two inches of the hives above water 
and the bees were all pushed up in that little space. I fished 
the hives out and set them on the ground, but I think I lost 
no bees nor queens, nor did there seem to be much loss of 
brood, and in a few days they had the mud cleaned out and 
gave us a good crop of honey, so I believe that this water 
treatment will work. Let us all try it on one. 



PEARCE METHOD OF BEE-KEEPING 33 



CHAPTER XIII 

Some of the Advantages of Having Bees in Buildings Above 
Ground Instead of Outside as Formerly Kept. 



One of the first I will mention is, less liability of bees 
stinging when properly placed in buildings during the hand- 
ling of them. The operator being shut away from the active 
flying bees from the hive entrance is not much disturbed 
by what few bees that leave the combs while handling them, 
and instead of annoying the operator they are looking for a 
way to escape from the building, and if the windows are 
provided with suitable openings, all bees will rapidly escape 
and make no trouble. Then bees in buildings do not have to 
be moved winter nor summer. When we used to piace our 
bees in the cellar in the late fall and remove them in the 
spring, it was always attended with a good deal of anviety 
to know just when to make these movements, without much 
disturbance and considerable loss to the bees, and I feel 
greatly relieved without these two movements a year, 
besides the advantage of a much superior wintering and 
healthier condition of the bees in the spring. When it comes 
to working the bees, we have them elevated in the house 
about 20 inches, which makes all kinds of difference in work- 
ing with them. Outside on the ground, it is without the 
shade that the house affords, which reminds me of what a 
relief such shelters would be in the far south where the 
houses could have shutters to open on the sides for air and 
light. And working under such a canopy must be greatly 
valued by our southern bee-keepers, lumber also being much 
cheaper there than here. The advantage of having a shelter 
at hand with the bees, where we can keep our appliancs to 
work with, cannot be too highly appreciated, as we do not 
have to go back and forth to a honey or supply house to get 
the fixtures we need. The value of this alone and the benefit 
of the shelter from storms and the shade afforded would go 
far towards paying for the construction of the shelter. And 
when we look at our bees so nicely housed away from all the 
severe storms, it makes one wonder that any one should ever 
leave their bees out where it is impossible to keep the 
entrances of the hives open for proper ventilation that is so 
essential most of the time. But one of the greatest benefits 
from a shelter is that we can^work with our bees in almost 
all kinds of weather. When if they were outside we would 



34 PEARCE METHOD OF BEE-KEEPING 

not think of working with them. I looked through a light 
colony the 15th of March and saw that they had a queen and 
brood, but I would not have thought of this if they had been 
outside, so I feel sure if our bee keepers will carefully weigh 
the advantages and disadvantages of these three prominent 
ways of keeping our bees, they must become convinced of 
the vast superiority of building an inexpensive shelter for 
the bees where they are safe at all times from storms and 
marauders, and where you can examine them at any time 
and keep the entrances of the hives open at all times from 
within and without, which is so very important for the well- 
being of the bees. And where the bees can remain winier 
and summer, no lugging up or down stairs twice a year, no 
packing and unpacking fall and spring, nor trouble and 
annoyance with double-walled hives during the working sea- 
son. I feel sure if you reflect on these things, you will 
wonder that we all have not housed our bees before instead 
of keeping them in the different ways that we have, sub- 
jected to so much uncertainty, annoyance and inconvenience. 



CHAPTER XIV 
Feed, Feeders and Feeding Bees. 



There have been a great many devices made for feeding 
bees, and I have tried quite a number of them, and while I 
would not want to be discourteous to any, I would like to tell 
something about them and the one I like best and why. 

Before we can feed anything intelligently, we have first 
to understand how that being takes its food. For instance, 
if we were going to feed a giraffe, we would not want to place 
its food down near its shoulders as you would feed a man or 
other short-necked animal, for if we did, it would probably 
starve to death, but if we put its food away up where none 
of these other animals could reach it, then it could get along 
very well and would have a monopoly of the food because 
no other animal could reach it. Likewise with the bees, 
they take their food from above, like the giraffe, but not in 
so marked a degree, and to feed them intelligently, we have 
to understand this fact. The bees always store their food 
above them, and that would prove where they expect to feed 
during the winter. In the late fall in our climate, the bees 
drop down to the bottom of the hive or tree and prepare for 
the winter. They cluster in a round mass between the combs, 
in empty combs where the brood was last hatched out, but 
if all frames are full, they first eat out the honey in the 
cluster or this ball of bees as we call them, because if that 
was left there, it would keep the warmth from passing from 
one division to the other. Then as colder weather approaches. 



PEARCE METHOD OF BEE-KEEPING 35 

they take their honey from above and thus extend the empty 
combs upward as they pass up, and so they continue till the 
approach of spring, and upon a moment's reflection, you will 
understand that they could not have gone in any other direc- 
tion. These separate divisions of bees could not get out of 
the spaces they are in and they could not cluster with their 
heads downward, or they would have a rush of blood to their 
heads and die of apoplexy, and if they would try to lie down 
on their sides all this time, they would probably have to have 
an operation for appendicitis before Spring, or had some bad 
adhesions, so "it is all up with them," as the sweeper said 
when he was stuck in the chimney, and therefore they pass 
upward to success if there is enough honey above them or 
to sure death if there is not. Should they reach the board, 
if it is a sealed down cover, or the burlap, if it is porous 
material as it should be, and if the honey is all gone, they will 
die. Nothing but good stores directly above them is of any 
use, as they cannot change to other combs outside of the 
cluster and would perish with plenty of honey in the sides 
of the hives, as has often been seen, for when they consume 
all above them, they cannot reach any of the honey stored on 
each side of them and so die. 

But I must stop to tell you about feed, feeders, and feed- 
ing. It will not be very long, however. I use granulated 
sugar, as we all do, when obliged to feed. With our bees in 
our two-body hive, we do not have to feed much, as the bees 
feed themselves. To make the feed or syrup, I put sugar 
into a pail or dish and mark or measure to where the top of 
the dry sugar comes, and pour boiling water on it till the 
sugar is dissolved or melted, continuing to stir as the sugar 
settles down and to pour in water till it comes up to where 
the dry sugar was, and you will have a syrup about right 
for the table or for the bees, and after the first batch, you 
can make it thicker or thinner by raising or lowering the 
water from this mark, but keep on stirring till the syrup 
looks perfectly clear and all the sugar is dissolved. This is 
important so as not to clog the feeders. 

About feeders. I just use a ten-pound honey pail with 
friction top. This makes the best all-around feeder I have 
ever tried. I perforate the lid with fine holes, with a sharp 
small awl, the only thing to be considered being to get this 
perforation done as it should be. For a light colony, do not 
perforate out too far from the center, as the syrup might 
drip dwn if you get the holes beyond where they are any 
bees. 

Fill your pail up to an inch or two of the top, so as to 
leave a vacuum, but you can feed a half pail or less if you 
wish. ' When your warm syrup is in, put on the lid and see 
that it is on good so as to exclude all air and not leak. Then 
invert it over the bees right down on the naked frames, then 
put a hive body, or hive rim with neither top nor bottom, 



36 PEARCE METHOD OF BEE-KEEPING 

around this can on top of your hive, and fill it with rags or 
crumpled paper, or most anything porous, and pack it down 
snug. Then you can put on your cover and your job is done. 
Your bees will take down this syrup winter or summer, and 
if you will keep your bees in buildings as we do, above 
ground, you can feed at any time or look at your feeder at 
any time of the year, in any weather, only do not open a bee- 
hive unless it is above 45°. 



CHAPTER XV 
Getting Our Honey Supply With Only Two Visits a Year. 



Are bees destined to give man his greatest and most 
easily obtained sweet supply ? It really looks as if they are. 
There is a honey suoply coming down to us each year that 
is greater in value than all our farm crops and cattle, and is 
allowed to go to waste when it might be gathered up so 
easily. 

Bees have spread themselves, or have been spread by 
man, until now there is scarcely a place where man is, where 
bees are not. They have, as it were, been running parallel 
with man, sometimes getting a little too near to him, but 
always as if it were saying to many, "Take me and use me," 
but man has not been intelligent enough to do so. He now 
seems to be waking up to the great possibilities of the honey 
bee, so let's canvass the situation a little to see where we 
are at. 

As we have said, man is on the job, the bees are with 
man and this enormous honey supply comes down to us each 
year unsolicited, and unlike our mineral wealth, which once 
used is gone forever, the honey supply is renewed for us each 
year. Then all that seems to be needed is for man to put 
this great combination together and use it for his benefit. 
Heretofore, he had not had proper understanding of the 
bees, nor the proper appliances to work with, but now, I 
feel sure that both the knowledge of the bees and the ap- 
pliances to handle them have been so improved, that there 
should be a great advance on the double quick, to gather 
up this great store of the purest of all sweets and most 
valuable commercial product for man's benefit. So at 
this point it seems very fitting that we have emblazoned on 
the front cover of our national magazine this advice, "KEEP 
MORE BEES." In the past the farmers and others have 
had no knowledge of the bees other than to have them 
increase by natural swarming and in the little hives that 



PEARCE METHOD OF BEE-KEEPING 



37 



they have been kept in, they are sure to swarm out at haying 
time, when the farmer is so pestered with other jobs all 
coming at once, that he voted bee-keeping a failure and quit. 
But now with the modern appliances, in which bees do not 
swarm naturally and give him this annoyance, he should 
take this matter up with vigor and secure for himself and 
family all of this sweet supply which is all about him, ana 
the bees will go out and bring it in for him, so if he desires 
he need not even go out doors for it. It is along this line 
that I will now write. 




Set of artificially raised Queen cells. Most Queen Breeders prefer to 
have a special house for raising Queens. All our bees are housed at all 
limes, eo with our method, we do not need special houses. 

I will suppose, then, that you have one or more swarms 
of bees. Instead of letting them swarm naturally as they 
have been doing, or will do if you leave them as they are, 
about the first of May, or just before the fruit blooms, just 
put on another hive body filled with good straight founda- 
tions or combs, and give access to this, that is, do not have 
anything between the two hives. Then put on top of these, 
comb honey cases for 50 or 150 pounds, and put this outfit 
in a shelter where they will be away from all storms and 
marauders, and you can go about your business till about the 
first of November when the bees will have clustered down 
in this big hive out of your surplus honey and you can lift off 
your honey without seeing or hearing a bee and you will 
receive your sweet supply with far less labor than you have 



38 PEARCE METHOD OF BEE-KEEPING 

received a like valuation of property from any other source 
on the farm. And this method may be repeated from year 
to year; just set on your honey cases about the first of 
May and lift them off about the first of November, two visits 
a year, this being about as nearly automatic as we should 
expect to get things in this world. And it opens great possi- 
bilities, not only for our farmers, but city dwellers as well 
where they have attic room. And it should be of still 
greater value to our men with large apiaries in out yards 
where bees are kept on a large scale. For with a modified 
plan the apiary may be doubled artificially in one visit at 
the time of taking off the white honey, the latter part of 
July, with little or no labor. 



CHAPTER XVI 
Bees, Poultry and Fruit. 



Here are three industries, either one of which, if well 
followed, will make a full-fledged business or occupation, but 
after having had the privilege of studying the whole three 
for some 35 years, I have fully come to the conclusion, that 
the best results can be obtained from a judicious combina- 
tion of all of these industries. 

Each of these vocations are helpful to the others 
and in some respects absolutely necessary for the best 
results, for instance: The fruits are a great help to the 
bees and the bees are just as essential for the proper pollena- 
tion of the fruits ; but some may wonder how the poultry 
could be benefitted or be a benefit to the bees or fruit. 

Well, it is like this: the poultry needs and must have 
shade. We might about as well cut the heads from our 
poultry as to turn them into a barren lot without shade, 
and fruit trees, especially plum trees makes a very fine 
shade for the poultry, and the poultry does not seem to care 
for or trouble the plums. On the farm our plum orchard 
came right down to the chicken yard, but I never knew the 
chickens to, in any way, trouble the plums. 

But why select plums for the poultry yard? The first 
consideration would be because the curculio, this trouble- 
some insect that stings the plums and destroys the fruit, 
cannot well exist where plenty of poultry is kept in the plum 
orchard. This insect in early spring burrows in the ground 
about the plum trees and where the poultry is kept to work 
the ground over under the trees this insect cannot live. 

For this reason the keeping of poultry is the best means 
to employ to rid the plum orchard of this troublesome pest. 



PEARCE METHOD OF BEE-KEEPING 39 

Then again, the plum trees are gross feeders and the drop- 
pings from the chickens is a great help in keeping up the 
fertility of the orchard and where a large flock can be kept, 
this amounts to considerable, as the chemists tell us the 
droppings from eight hens is equal to one cow, and if much 
poultry is kept they will keep the orchard entirely free from 
weeds, so nothing will have to be expended for cultivation, 
therefore the avails from the plum orchard can be had with 
little or no expense, and we find plums one year with another, 
one of the surest and most profitable crops. 

If the ground is kept thus clean by the poultry it 
would be well to divide the grounds with a netting and sow 
down one-half of it at a time to oats to furnish green feed 
for the poultry and to draw out any strong odor from the 
ground. 

A word about the varieties of plums to plant. With my 
present knowledge I think I should plant half each of Lom- 
bard and October Purple. I know that the Lombard is all 
right and from what I have learned of the October Purple 
it is in every way reliable. They could be set 12 to 16 feet 
apart. If other fruits are to be planted they could be set 
outside of the poultry enclosure. But apples might also be 
in the chicken yard. 

Now that we have learned with our improved method of 
bee keeping, we can just as well keep our bees and our 
poultry together in the same houses and same yards with no 
loss to either. This will greatly increase the profits and 
reduce the expenses as the poultry houses are the big item 
of expense, and if we can utilize them for the bees also that 
will yield as much or more profit than the poultry it surely 
should be profitable. 

With these three pursuits carefully arranged on a three 
to five acre lot or more extensive farm, I feel sure a larger 
revenue can be realized from it than from any other rural 
pursuit I have any knowledge of. 

I would try to locate on a good line of communication 
with a good market near one of our interurban roads if 
possible. I would want a good elevation on account of the 
fruit. The soil should be medium, not too heavy or too light. 
Care should be exercised in avoiding mistakes in laying out 
the grounds, and putting up the buildings, if none are on 
the ground or re-arranging buildings if any are on the place, 
and the selection and planting the fruits which should be 
started as soon as possible to attain a growth for shade and 

fruit. _ . , , .,, ., 

In building the poultry and bee house, I would build it 
12 feet wide and as long as you need for the flock and no 
higher than you need, say 7 feet. I would face it to the 
east as all of your windows and openings are supposed to 
be on that side and will be away from the direction of our 
prevailing severe storms and the west side against which 



40 



PEARCE METHOD OF BEE-KEEPING 



the poultry roosts should be, made as tight and warm as 
possible, and then on that side fast growing vines might be 
planted like grapes for shade to keep off the severe west 
sun in the later part of the day. This will be a great relief 
to the chickens when they go to roost at evening. I know 
that facing the house to the east is qu^te an innovation. It 
has so long been the habit to face them to the south, but if 
you will reflect on it for a moment, you will see if you face 
toward the south, you make almost an equatorial heat with 
the sun shining on the front of the long house, and then it 
spoils your opportunity to protect your house, as it should 




Exterior of a combined Poultry and Bee house at the author's home, 
showing where bees are kept in barn loft and poultry house, 

be, from the west and southwest storms and wind or shade 
as it should be, and then the early morning is the coldest 
time and if the windows open to the east the poultry will get 
the benefit from the morning sun. 

I think if you reflect on these points you will never 
again want to face a bee house or poultry house to the south. 
A house as good as we need can be built of dressed hemlock 
and covered all over with roofing material on the outside 
with some closed ventilators coming down to perhaps a foot 
of the floor, but for the convenience in keeping it clean I 
want a good cement floor in the house. It need not be thick 



PEARCE METHOD OF BEE-KEEPING 



41 



as you never intend to drive a loaded wagon over it. Then 
you can scatter a little dry sand or litter over it and every- 
thing will be clean and nice. 

If you will please notice the inside cut of my house, 
you will notice that the shelf the bees sit on is 20 inches high 
from the floor and 20 inches wide. Under this shelf is an 
admirable place for the hens' nests. I use old bee hives for 
this purpose. The glass of the windows should all be cut 
one-half inch short at the bottom to let any bees go out, so 




Interior of the Poultry and Bee House shown 0:1 opposite page. 



they will not die on the windows if you work at the bees 
when the windows are closed. 

But in the summer all windows can be taken out as no 
bees come inside enough to bother you. 

In winter, we stop up this cut in the bottom of the glass 
with a bit of lath. 

Before I close I would like to speak of the dropping 
board I use. I had become disgusted with dropping boards, 



PEARCE METHOD OF BEE-KEEPING 

they were so hard to clean. So I thought I would try one 
of oilcloth and to my delight nothing sticks to it. We throw 
a little sand or dust over it when ever we clean it off. If 
you have old wooden boards, by all means cover them with 
oilcloth. All poultrymen should know of this as it makes 
easy what used to be a hard job. I use a trowel to clean it 
with. 



CHAPTER XVII 

How Bees Behave in a Chicken House Where Bees and 

Poultry Are Kept Together. 



This is a subject about which there is not much known. 
At least I did not know anything about it till I tried it. I 
never had heard of anyone trying it, but on the fruit farm 
our Brown Leghorn Chickens spent a good deal of their 
time in the bee yard, so much so that I thought seriously of 
making the bee yard into a run for the poultry. I have heard 
that bees sometimes sting chickens, but I never saw a case of 
it, so I do not believe it is prevalent enough to give any harm. 
Last year we had 30 hens and 6 large colonies of bees 
together all summer and they did not seem to give any 
trouble to the hens, and the hens seemed to take well to the 
bees. The poultry house was 10 feet wide and 18 feet long. 
It is built across the end of the barn and faces to the east. 
As we understand, poultry house construction, there always 
should be one dark side and one very light side for the poul- 
try themselves so it makes it easy to arrange it for bees 
after it is built for chickens. The roosts were arranged on 
the dark side of the house, as they always should be, and all 
along the front as you see, there is a row of windows and 
just below these windows we built a shelf 20 inches high 
and 20 inches broad. The length of the house, and on this 
shelf the bees are put. This places them high enough to 
work with well and also they are high enough so the chick- 
ens can go under this shelf where they have their nests in 
some unused bee hives, and we hang a curtain down from 
this shelf and this makes a dark place for the nests, which 
the hens like. The hens have all the floor space they would 
have had if the bees were not in and to keep the hens from 
flying up on the bee hives, we just screen down from the 
top with 2 inch poultry netting to the edge of the shelf 
behind the bees. This neting we have in 6 foot lengths and 
a light bar across the bottom which we hook up to the roof 



PEARCE METHOD OF BEE-KEEPING 43 

when we work at the bees, which is not very often, as we 
keep them. Two visits a year will do, if we don't care to 
give them more. Once to look them over in the spring to 
see if they are free from foul brood, and put on our honey 
cases and again to take off honey and fix them for winter. 
But the hens we have to visit over 700 times a year, if we 
only see them twice a day, and.the feed we give these hens 
for the year, if seen all together, would frighten us. And 
yet poultry raising is lauded to the skies while bee keeping 
it is not thought amounts to much, but you will find a few 
colonies of bees will bring you more clear money than quite 
a large flock of chickens, and will not require a hundredth 
part of the labor to care for them, as the bees work for 
nothing, and board themselves and so require no feed from 
you, and little attention. 






^cccx^^r-^^P'xl 




A perfect healthy frame of sealed brood or bees almost ready to hatch. 



44 



PSARCE METHOD OF FEE-KEEPING 




FATHER h h. EANGSTROTH 
Tlie < (riginator of our Removable Frame Hive 

LORENZO EORRAIN [yANGSTROTH, sometimes called the "Father 
of American Apiaculture" was born in Philadelphia, Dec. 10, 1810. He 
entered Yale College graduating in 1831. In 1837 he became interested in 
bees by seeing a glass vessel filled with beautiful comb honey at the house 
of a friend. He became enthusiastic and at once purchased two colonies of 
bees. In 1848 he began to experiment with hives of different forms and 
after much study and experimenting he devised the Movable Frame Hive 

This invention gave him perfect control over the combs of the hive and 
gave a new impetus to the easy and profitable management of bees. 

Mr. Langstroth afterward engaged in the propagation of Italian Queens 
on a large scale. 

His many writings on the subject of bees have made his name venerated 
by American Bee Keepers, who are aware of the great debt due him by 
the fraternitv. 



PEARCE METHOD OF BEE-KEEPING 



45 




CHAS. DADANT 



MR. CHAS. DADANT was born May 22, 1817 at Vaux-Sous-Aubigny, 
France and came to America in 1S63, settling in Hamilton, 111., and 
engaged in Bee Culture, which in his hand yielded marvelous results, He 
soon became noted as one of the Leading Apiarists of the world. Mr. 
Dadant has been a prolific writer and his contributions to the heading 
American and European Bee Journals have made his name thoroughly 
familiar to apiarists all over the world. 



46 PEARCE METHOD OF BEE-KEEPING 




A. I. R( )OT 



The name of A. I. ROOT deserves to be considered a household word. 
His great crowning work, the A-B-Cand X-Y-Z of Bee Culture, which is an 
encyclopedia on this subject would be enough to immortalize any man. 

The great work he has been doing later for the upbuilding of the home 
and the elevation, morally and physically of his fellowmen, must endear 
him to every lover of the good, the pure and the true. It is a great thing 
to so live that all our lives, like his, are devoted to the uplift of humanity. 



PEARCE METHOD OF BEE-KEEPING 47 




THOMAS G. NEWMAN 

The American Bee Journal is the oldest and one the best periodicals 
relating to Bee Culture. THOMAS G. NEWMAN was the Editor and for 
many years identified with the publication of this paper and through his 
writings has become familiar to all who are engaged in the raising of Bees. 

While Mr. Newman was never a large honey producer, the information 
and instruction which he has furnished through the American Bee Journal 
have been sufficient to endear him to the many who have been seeking tins 
information, and have looked to him for the knowledge to enable them 
to carry on this work and to solve the many problems which always come 
to those in the pursuit of any business. 

"The pen is mightier than the sword" and as such Mr. Newman was a 
Master Mind. 



It is estimated that we are producing a railroad train-load of honey fifty 
miles long, in this country each year. Yet the Bee Industry is only fairly 
begun These four men; who have a place ,11 our book, may well be 
deSnated as the wheel horses that have done so much for our pursu it to 
make it what it is. Others have done well and we would not detract from 
Ty but I feel sure that all will join in doing these men special hono 
and perpetuating their memory. 



48 PEARCE METHOD OF BEE-KEEPING 



SUMMARY 



I present these few testimonials from these very busy 
people, who are well known to all of us, for the encourage- 
ment of those who may not have had much of any experi- 
ence with bees to show them with what ease these people 
get this large yield of honey from year to year by this 
method. None of these people, as I am aware, had ever 
kept bees before. 

This you will notice is all made possible by hav- 
ing the bees in this large hive, made of two ordinary 
hives, and then placing this hive inside of a building or 
shelter where it is safe at all times and can be most easily 
cared for. The fact that we can get such a large supply 
of comb honey should appeal to every one. 

It has heretofore been impossible to produce comb 
honey without swarming, and this swarming was a great 
trouble to any one starting with only a few colonies of bees. 
They did not have enough time to spare to watch them, and 
swarms would issue and go away in the absence of the 
keeper. This made it so uncertain and has been the great 
cause of so many starting in bee keeping and being obliged 
to give it up. Now with this new way, where the bees do 
not swarm till you wish them to, it makes it possible for peo- 
ple with other business to begin bee keeping and pursue it 
till they can give up their other occupations and devote 
themselves wholly to the bees if they wish. For this reason 
it will make a fine vocation for ladies as well as gentlemen, 
as it is an open air business and you are not confined to it 
except for a minimum of time through the summer months, 
as the bees are dormant in winter. 

This is so different from poultry keeping, which many 
have tried, but in which the constant care has been so great 
that many have been obliged to abandon it. I know of 



PEARCE METHOD OF BEE-KEEPING 49 

nothing that should appeal to teachers and others in vari- 
ous walks of life so much as bee-keeping by this method. 
It can be taken up almost anywhere that you happen to 
be, in city or country, as honey is found plentifully in any 
locality. Not much capital or land is needed to start. 
Neither does it require an expensive outfit to begin. 
You can start with one colony if you wish. It is all very 
simple and you should learn it in a day or two. It is noth- 
ing to learn as compared to the poultry business or fruit 
raising or many other pursuits, and vastly more profitable. 
Should this book become interesting to many and be 
instrumental in helping some young person to a start in 
life, or make life easier and more pleasant for some aged 
person, it will be a source of gratification to the author and 
his efforts will not have been in vain. 



50 PEARCE METHOD OF BEE-KEEPING 

WM. H. ANDERSON, PRES. FOURTH NAT. BANK. 

Grand Rapids, Mich., July 9, 1907. 
To all whom it may concern : 

This is to certify that I have been keeping bees on the Pearce 
System. They have wintered well and are doing fine. I am so well 
pleased with the svstem that I have this day ordered another outfit. 

WM. H.ANDERSON. 



Grand Rapids, Mich., Feb. 26, 1909. 
This is to certify that I am keeping bees by the Pearce System. 
Last year one outfit gave me 150 pounds of fine comb honey in one- 
pound boxes. The work in caring for them was merely a pastime as 
compared with the old way when they used to swarm out just when 
we were at our haying, fighting potato bugs, and perhaps a dozen 
other jobs. It would be well if this plan could be brought to the 
notice of all our farmers. I am a dairy farmer in the Grand River 
Vallev north of Grand Rapids. 

L. A. HUBBARD, R. R. No. 9. 



I have kept bees in my city home in (hand Rapids, using THE 
PEARCE METHOD OF BEE 'KEEPING for the past two years. 
I had absolutely no experience with bees and gave them little care. 
I followed the instructions in THE PEARCE METHOD and in addi- 
tion to harvesting 144 lbs. of the finest clover honey this past summer, 
I had such an increase in bees that I made another colony by following 
the Pearce instructions. There was no swarming during the entire 
year and both hives went into the winter in good, healthy condition. 
The original outfit cost $15.00 and this year's crop of honey was worth 
$22.80, besides the new colony of bees. — George W. Welsh, publisher 
of The Fruit Belt. 



Grand Rapids, Mich., April 10, 1915. 
Mr. J. A. Pearce, 

City. 
Mr. Dear Mr. Pearce: — 

I take great pleasure in recommending your system of bee keep- 
ing, and for the benefit of those interested, will give a very brief 
statement of results obtained in three years. 

In 1911 I began with one swarm of bees, keeping it according to 
the "Pearce Method." The following year I had three swarms of 
bees and 170 section boxes of finest white honey from the one swarm. 
The next year I took 360 section boxes from the three swarms. 

Last summer was not a very good one for the honey crop, there 
being almost no white clover near here, however my three swarms 
stored nearly 300 section boxes. 

About August 20 I divided two swarms, making five in all, which 
I now have in fine condition for this year's work. 

I shall always be grateful that I learned of your "method." 

MATTIE J. ROGERS, 

R. R. 1. 



PEARCE METHOD OF BEE-KEEPING 51 

Mr. Joseph A. Pearce, 

Grand Rapids, Mich. 
My Dear Mr. Pearce: — 

Permit me to express my gratitude to you for suggesting the plan 
of having a swarm of bees so arranged in my barn as to give continu- 
ous satisfaction at a minimum expenditure of energy and thought. 
Since you placed the hive of bees with me, I have found scarcely any 
care necessary and they have returned to me forty to sixty pounds of 
honey per year, which has enabled me to make a good many friends 
happy, for I know of no more delightful gift to a neighbor than a 
card of beautiful honey. The venture has been in every way a success 
and I wish more people would take advantage of your plan. 

Yours very truly, 

CHARLES A.' GARFIELD. 



THE WIDDICOMB FURNITURE CO. 

Grand Rapids, Mich., July 16, 1907. 
My Dear Mr. Pearce: — 

I have taken no small amount of interest in your recent exposi- 
tion of bee culture, especially that phase of it showing how simple a 
matter is the care of a single hive of bees for a family supply of 
honey. 

I think it is twelve years ago that I installed in my barn a hive 
of bees received from you. During all these years we have had an 
abundant supply of honey, and no attention whatever has been given 
to them other than an occasional examination that we might note 
they were prospering. During this time we have taken from the hive 
all the honey we required for our personal use, and in addition to that 
all needed for the lunch room of The Widdicomb Furniture Company 
in the exposition seasons, for my hive has grown to be exceedingly 
productive. Verv truly yours, 

Mr. J. A. Pearce, City. WM. WIDDICOMB. 



THE BELKNAP WAGON COMPANY. 

Mr. J. A. Pearce, 

City. 
Dear Sir: — 

I take pleasure in writing and thanking you for the swarm of 
bees bought of you a little more than a year ago and placed in the 
attic at my home on Madison avenue. Last summer I found that 
the hive was completely filled with honey and on taking it out found 
that I had 134 pounds of the purest and whitest comb honey. 

As a money investment it is one of the best I have ever made 
and the pleasure of having the bees and seeing them about is of 
greater value to me than any profit I may make out of the honey. 
As it is I have had honey to give my neighbors, have sold quite a 
bit of it and have plenty left to supply my friends for the entire year. 
I think I shall have to put in another swarm during the coming season. 

Very respectfully, 

C. E. BELKNAP. 



52 PZARCE METHOD OF BEE-KEEPING 

A. J. VANDENBERG. 

Savings Teller, Grand Rapids Savings Bank. 

Grand Rapids, Mich., Feb. 26, 1909. 
Mr. Jos. A. Pearce, 

City. 
My Dear Mr. Pearce: — 

I wish to say just a few words relative to your method of keeping 
bees. 

In the autumn of 1907 you suggested that I try a swarm and 
handle them under the "Pearce system." I did not have very much 
faith in it at the time, but on your strong recommendation I bought 
a swarm. In the spring of 1908 they showed up strong and went 
to work at once. At the end of the season I was surprised to find 
that they had gathered 156 pounds of comb honey, and I at once 
ordered another swarm. 

The results were beyond my highest expectation as several of my 
neighbors have bees under the old method and scarcely ever get any 
results. The fact that they use their bees in connection with their 
greenhouses may have something to do with their lack of success, but 
I feel that your system is certainly the right one, as there is prac- 
tically no work connected with it excepting the removal of the honey 
and taking care to cover the hives in winter. 

Yours respectfully, 

A. J. VANDENBERG. 



EDWARD M. DEANE & COMPANY. 

Grand Rapids, Mich., March 1, 1909. 

Mr. Joseph A. Pearce, 

City. 
My Dear Mr. Pearce: — 

In reply to your inquiry as to whether I was satisfied with the 
swarm of bee; purchased frcm you two years ago, will say that they 
have been highly satisfactory. Your method of having bees so that 
they do not swarm is certainly very satisfactory to the amateur bee- 
keeper as they require no attention whatever, only to take the honey 
off in the fall. 

The hive that I have did not become thoroughly established until 
about the middle of the season of 1908, but I am pleased to tell you 
that we took off in the fall about 35 pounds of very superior honey, 
leaving for the bees themselves in the lower sections of the hive, I 
should estimate, nearly 100 pounds of honey. At the present time 
they are in fine condition and I have no doubt but what the coming 
season, if it is a good one for honey gathering, I will get from 100 
to 150 pounds of merchantable honey. 

Hoping that this may be of some assistance to you in inducing 
people to adopt the "Pearce System," I am, 
Very truly yours, 

ANNA BISSELL, by Dwight Smith. 



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PEARCE METHOD OF BEE-KEEPING 




EEWARE 



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Just a word of caution to beginners in Bee Culture. Do nor 
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tool and a pair of cotton oiled gauntlet gloves These will make 
it safe for you on the start. You can procure these articles from 
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Bees are without cloubt the greatest material gift to 
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Care for your bees gently and they will repay you. Be 
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Don't put your bees down cellar or leave them out in 
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to everybody. "Man's inhumanity to man makes countless 
millions mourn." 



56 PEARCE METHOD OF BEE-KEEPING 



FOR FIFTY YEARS THE STANDARD 



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iladelphia, Chicago, St. Paul, San Francisco. Des Moines, Syracuse, 
lis. Zanesville, O.. Mechanic Falls, Me., Los Angeles. Washington 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
H II II III II I III I II II I III II 



002 841 774 3 



The PEARCE 
New Method of 
Bee- Keeping 




By 
JOSEPH A P&&RGE 



